1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to networked communications systems, and more particularly to a system and method for licensing of networked services, such as Web services, and the like.
2. Description of Related Art
Recently, networked services technologies, such as Web services technologies, are introducing at a rapid pace the capability to access various services over the Internet in an interoperable and automated manner. As enterprises make their content (such as software) and services available as networked services, there exists a need to control their indiscriminate access and use. The typical method of access control has been one where an identity or credentials about an identity are matched against a set of policies that are managed locally by the provider of the service. One example is when a user enters a user name and password to access some resource in a Web service. This method of access control is widely used in computer systems and is primarily about protecting “my” services against unauthorized use. In other words, access to a service typically is solely based on an identity of a user requesting access to the service.
With a desire to manage or restrict access, proliferate and commercialize services, there exist scenarios where computational environments are merely intermediaries and typically cannot decide on their own security policies. An example of such intermediaries includes hosting and replicating devices used in outsourcing and bandwidth management scenarios. However, in such environments, it is difficult to propagate and manage central security policies. Accordingly, there is still a need for systems and methods for licensing of networked services, such as Web services.